8 Rules to Maximize Your Employee Potential and Transform Your Business into a High-Performing Machine I discovered the eight tried and proper rules to follow to get the most out of your employees. Read on to see how you can get your employees to become their best selves.
By Mike Koenigs Edited by Micah Zimmerman
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
As an entrepreneur and success coach to multimillion-dollar companies and rising stars in business, I am the first to admit that I could not possibly do what I do without my fantastic team. I know the amount of effort it takes to find and train employees and to inspire them to work together like a well-oiled machine, and it's no easy task.
In my career, I have seen how some companies can unlock the potential of each employee over and over again. They attract, engage and retain top talent who are enthusiastic and highly functional in their jobs. In turn, these employees boost productivity, engagement and profitability. When you've seen that magic at work, it's incredible. When you're experiencing the opposite, figuring out how to fix it is overwhelming.
No matter how big or small your business, everything about it comes down to the satisfaction and happiness of the people who are working in it and on it. Happy employees equal happy clients and customers, which equals happy owners and stockholders.
Related: Who Is More Important — Your Customers or Your Employees?
Employee hiring, retention and productivity are some of the top issues companies face today, and solving these problems can be one of the biggest challenges for companies of every size. My clients always ask me: How can I ensure that our employees: 1) enjoy their jobs enough to stay with the company and 2) care enough to work at their highest and best levels?
I learned a lot about what I know about building strong teams from Bryan Howard of Mercury Performance Group, and I use his principles with my own clients. After decades of working with some of the biggest names in business, including Chase, Wells Fargo, TIAA and more, he knows it's possible to build a company culture that rewards employees, provides a purpose for people, and cares about its employees and their families.
I recently talked with Howard about his experiences fixing internal workforce issues for companies with more than 500 employees. He claimed the secret was found in harnessing the power of people.
Related: 7 Secrets to Employee Happiness
When looking at a company that needs help with employee productivity, you look at the Inchworm Effect or Pareto Principle. Study the 20% of employees on the right side of the bell curve — the top performers — and teach their approach to success to the average and lower performers on the left side. And as those workers are upping their game, the top performers keep innovating and improving, and again their innovations are passed along. Momentum is created, the bell curve gets ever steeper, and the entire team functions at a higher level.
Howard shared his program for improving companies, which always starts with people:
- People are at the center of the solar system at every company.
- Every person in an organization has unique superpowers that lie dormant until allowed to shine.
- Alignment and engagement are the hinges that swing open the door to high performance.
- Leaders are the key to unlocking the potential of people and teams.
- One size does not fit all. Each company needs tailored solutions that create sustainable results for employees and their performance.
- Learning and evolving are not negotiable in any company.
- Growth is the only evidence for the life of a company.
- Empowered people transform organizations.
Along with this, eight key areas must be looked at: employee performance and productivity, employee retention, employee engagement, customer engagement, the brand's reputation, interpersonal communication and conflict and regulatory compliance. Howard calls this the M-Factor.
Related: 5 Ways to Build Killer Relationships With Customers
If you're always looking to build and maintain a strong and empowered team, Howard's main advice is to engage the employees in how to do that. "The trainings happen with them, not to them," Howard reminded me. "This empowered the employees to create a great organization."
Applying universal principles and decades of experience can lead to easy-to-implement, measurable results that change customer engagement dramatically. It's possible to help your company thrive through your employees and improve profitability while boosting motivation and personal satisfaction.
